Truck Driving Jobs

tcurr · Joined: 13 Sep 2005 Posts: 171

I use the Garman 2720 and love it.

What I like most is it gives you the choice of shortest or fastest, also you can out in that your driving a truck so it routes accordingly.

It will also reroute and you can touch the screen to pull up a large scale of the area, It really is loaded with features that are extremely helpfull.

The 2730 has the XM traffic feature but read up on it I do not think it auto routes you just gives you a seperate screen with traffic info. I havent researched it much so thats what I could tell about it. Go to www.gpscity.com they have forumns there I am sure you can find the info you need.

apollo · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 64 Location: McDonough, GA

Thanks tcurr. I have read your post on TMC. A little off topic here, but do they have refrigerators and microwaves in the trucks?

Toothpick · Joined: 15 Nov 2004 Posts: 321

Crackaces wrote: tim.enright wrote: Crackaces wrote:
And while tooling along at 60 MPH there is a bus stopped on a two lane highway .. a one second distraction maneuvering a mouse .... bang .. 7 lives are ended, -- your life and a family is forever changed.

After using the Laptop 4 Co-Pilot for Truck for four months I decided that an ergonomic screen touch (Street Pilot) is enough distraction let alone the horrible UI desgin of Co-Pilot.

I do plan to use the navigation products from the drivers seat but DO NOT plan on taking my eyes off the road while moving. I was planning on using voice navigation while in the drivers seat. Did you attempt this when you used the product? I know the voice thing can get a bit clunky.

The voice thing vs. glancing at a screen was not the problem. The problem was maneuvering around the screen and changing the scale while in motion.

Let me set up a scenario.

Directions from the Qualcom are totally incorrect. They go to a place that has been burned down for 5 years. Call the number for the consignee and they do not know what you are talking about. (Let us say you have been given a central number to call that does not know about this plant. Not so far fetched as it might seem look at my journal..) You put the address into Co-Pilot -- let's say 1265 Main St and you get [100 - 9000] meaning that the software has no clue about 1265 Main St Yourtown USA. What it does know is that Main street has an address range of 100 - 9000. That could include addresses where Main Street starts and stops.

The first thing I would like to do is quickly expand range to see what streets are around me . does Main St dead end? Ok I would like to set the range for more detail quickly. An easy task with a Street Pilot .. not so easy task with Co-Pilot.

OK I am tooling down Main st and I would like to build my confidence and look ahead. Maybe stay at the same detail level but just move the map ahead a mile or two. Again, not easy with Co-pilot while moving down the road. One quirk is that the scale always returns to a default level while moving. Now this task is really really easy with my Street Pilot.

BTW) The routing portion of Co-Pilot adds very little real value. For example at least Pro-Miles will let you easily find a truck stop or rest area to take a break and adjust the itenerary accordingly. Co-Pilot requires you to set a mandatory break time and assumes a fixed time for that break. Pretty hokey for $300 software.

So I did not get a good value from the routing software and the GPS software is just too hard use. In fact, since I have been bitten by the trucking bug .. I am looking at the Street Pilot 7200. It has integrated XM radio and GPS with a 7 inch screen and really big lettering. (OK $1499 retail .. but it will come down)

Personally, for my money, I think you are much better off spending your hard-earned cash on an inexpensive laptop computer and then installing navigation software with a GPS receiver on it for a small fraction of the cost you will spend for a stand-alone portable GPS unit. With a laptop, you can use it as your DVD player, check your email, chat live with friends and family, cruise the net, burn DVDs and CDs, listen to your favorite music, download and play pod-casts, play games, and do a whole host of other things with it besides having a big screen navigation unit. Also, you can save your trips as you drive them for later reference. You can?t do any of those things with any portable GPS unit I?ve seen, no matter how much easier and simpler its search capabilities are.

Moreover, your scenario above is really nonsensical, because most people would do all the zooming in and zooming out required long before they ever departed to find the shipper or departed to make delivery to a consignee, and most definitely not on the fly. At least not me, I like to plan beforehand to know where the hell it is I?m going. When you?re driving a 70? something vehicle, I don?t like to leave room for error, if you know what I mean. I believe there is only one kind of planning and that is very meticulous planning. If it isn?t meticulous, you?re only wasting your time.

Crackaces · Joined: 29 Mar 2005 Posts: 1343

Toothpick wrote:
Moreover, your scenario above is really nonsensical, because most people would do all the zooming in and zooming out required long before they ever departed to find the shipper or departed to make delivery to a consignee, and most definitely not on the fly. At least not me, I like to plan beforehand to know where the hell it is I?m going. When you?re driving a 70? something vehicle, I don?t like to leave room for error, if you know what I mean. I believe there is only one kind of planning and that is very meticulous planning. If it isn?t meticulous, you?re only wasting your time.

Well that scenrario is not so nonsensical ... I bought Co-Pilot and a Durabook and found those problems in the software. I now own a Garmin 7200 and I do not find those problems in the software. It is a heck of lot easier to use.

To each his own ...

BTW) You can plan all day long, but if things are not as planned I would much rather have a system that I can rapidly acertain my next move rather than software where I have to stop in order to do any sort of analysis.

That is what makes the world go around Toothpick ..

tcurr · Joined: 13 Sep 2005 Posts: 171

No refridges or micros in the truck but you can use the plug in coolers and any 12 volt product you want. They do not allow inverters.

ant1v1ru5 · Joined: 09 May 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Lost In Technology

I just bought a Garmin Street Pilot 7200 with a GXM antenna, from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Streetpilot-Vehicle-Navigation-System/dp/B000BWSQ2G/sr=8-1/qid=1162879196/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-6323092-4603161?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

I'm a proud Werner driver, but unfortunately sometimes our directions from Werner are simply put: retarded.

A couple weeks ago I had a consignee near a Best Buy, so I took a short walk over to see what sort of GPS units they had - I ended up dropping $1150 on a Garmin "Nuvi" this little thing kicked butt! it had truck routing built in, touch screen display so it was easy to navagate on-the-fly - also I could find a truck stop, or somewhere to rest with a couple clicks on the Nuvi's screen... BUT: I found this other GPS that Garmin makes called the "7200" it gets XM radio, has a 7" screen, and it gets weather and traffic updates for where I'm at also. So I returned the Nuvi. The 7200 is a bit pricey at $1200 but I think it'll be well worth it - Garmin GPS units are much better than Streets and trips, or other GPS units you can plug into a laptop... just check 'em out you'll be glad you did.

Ant ~

CharismaticEvil · Joined: 11 Sep 2006 Posts: 39 Location: 1 of 48 States

apollo wrote: Does anyone use the Garmin that has the XM traffic feature? Does it really work and re route you around traffic jams? Does it overall save you time and help avoid getting lost go to deliveries or pick ups?

I would like to know about this too, as this is the GPS I am thinking about buying, as bad as it's going to hurt for the model I want at around $900.00, plus the $300 to get the XM antennae. I happened to be at a drop yard and saw another Werner driver that had one and it really floored me. They spoke glowingly about it, and now that I'm about to go OTR again, this time with as a driver for an owner operator, I can't afford to make any mistakes, and no qualcomm... Not that qualcomm can give good directions anyway... so GPS and tripple checking my large print atlas are how it's gonna be.

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